words out, words in

[Paul Frank]

Paul McFedries
> According to the OED, "comestible" as an adjective "appears to have become
> obs. in Eng. before 1688; but it has been reintroduced, in n. use, From
> French in 19th c." The adjective citations end at 1683 and the noun
> citations begin at 1837, so we could possibly conclude that this word
> dropped out of English for about 150 years.

Other examples from the OED:

Chill: This word seems to have become obs. by 1400, after the vb. and adj.
had been formed from it, its place being taken by cold n. Since c 1600 it
has been revived, app. as a new formation from the vb., and in a modified
sense evidently of verbal origin.

Clientele: This seems to have been taken immediately from Latin in the 16th
c., to have become obs. in the 17th (it is noted as Obs. in Webster 1864),
and to have been re-adopted from French in the middle of the 19th, in sense
3; hence it is often pronounced wholly or partly as Fr.

Confrere: As a naturalized Eng. word it appears to have become obs. in 17th
c.; but it has been taken back into frequent use as a borrowing from mod.
French, and is usually written confrère.

According to the OED, the word manifold became obsolete in Middle English
and has recently been formed afresh from the adjective. Then there are words
that have come back under a different meaning, such as henchman, which used
to mean groom, squire, page, and whatnot but became obsolete by 1650. There
are many other examples, such as the verb to ignore meaning to be ignorant
of, which became obsolete by 1700, though it was occasionally used later,
and know means something quite different.

I know nothing about etymology or any other kind of ology, but I'm well
versed in the art of cutting and pasting.

Paul
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Paul Frank
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